Background*

Dr. Lawrence D. Thompson, also known as Larry, Ph.D., served as an Executive Vice President of Government Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Pepsico, Inc. from July 2012 to November 24, 2014. Dr. Thompson served as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, Secretary and General Counsel of Pepsico Inc., from November 2004 to May 1, 2011. Prior to his work at the Department of Justice, he served as a Partner at King & Spalding LLP, an Atlanta law firm, ... which he first joined in 1977. Prior to joining King & Spalding in 1977, he worked as an attorney at Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Mo. He served at Washington Mutual Card Services. He has been a Director of Graham Holdings Company (formerly, The Washington Post Company) since June 9, 2011 and Southern Company since December 1, 2014. He serves as a Director/Trustee of various funds in the fund complex of Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series Funds. Dr. Thompson has been Trustee of Franklin Custodian Funds - Franklin Income Fund since 2007. Dr. Thompson has been an Independent Trustee at Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, Inc. and Templeton Global Income Fund since October 2005. He has been Director of Commonwealth General Corporation since 1994. He serves on the board of the United Negro College Fund, Cbeyond and the National Center for State Courts. He serves as a Trustee of Franklin Resources, Inc. He serves as a Trustee of The Brookings Institution. He serves as a Director at WP Company LLC. He has been an Independent Trustee of Franklin Universal Trust since April 2007. He served as Director of Cbeyond Inc. since February 2010. He served as a Director of Southern Company from May 26, 2010 to December 10, 2012. He served as Director at Delta Air Lines Inc., since October 23, 2003. In the years since 1977, he left King & Spalding LLP on several occasions for public service positions. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 job in the Justice Department, in 2001. As Deputy Attorney General, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Justice (DOJ) with oversight responsibilities for the Department's components and initiatives, including the nation's U.S. Attorneys, law enforcement, prisons and national security. In 2002, he was designated to Chair the Bush administrations' corporate fraud task force. Dr. Thompson left the Justice Department in August 2003 and joined the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., as a Senior Fellow. In April 2000, he was selected to Chair the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control. In 1995, he was independent counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). From 1982 to 1986 he served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Since January 2004, he teaches at the University of Georgia School of Law. He has been Independent Director at Templeton Russia and East European Fund Inc since 2005. He is on the Board of Directors of Drug Enforcement Administration Museum Foundation; Committee of Visitors, University of Michigan Law School and Fellow, American Board of Criminal Lawyers. He is the recipient of the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice's mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award by the Federal Bar Association and the A. T. Walden Award for outstanding accomplishments to the legal profession by the Gate City Bar Association, Atlanta. Dr. Thompson is a 1967 cum laude graduate with a bachelor's degree in sociology from Culver-Stockton College. He earned a master's degree in sociology from Michigan State University in 1969. He received his law degree in 1974 from the University of Michigan Law School.

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